Tesco has once again come under attack over its growing presence in the grocery market, but this time some of its own shareholders have joined in.

Speaking at the supermarket giant’s annual meeting last week, private shareholder Donovan Winter described the growing number of Tesco Express stores in the UK, which currently stands at 550, as being “like a plague of locusts, which are sucking the lifeblood out of local enterprises”.

Winter continued: “What concerns me is the spread of stores that you have, this creeping megalomania. Everywhere you go, you see an Express.”

Another investor asked the Tesco board, “How would you like a Tesco juggernaut outside your bedroom at 6am with the engine running?” after claiming the company was waking neighbourhoods early on weekends with deliveries.

Meanwhile, pressure group Friends of the Earth and eight other organisations launched a new website called Tescopoly, which condemns Tesco’s treatment of farmers, local stores and the environment.

The website, which was launched at a briefing hosted by Andrew George MP on the growing power of superstores, calls for a block on Tesco and other big supermarkets taking over any more stores.